Day 284, Shirioshi, Japan
Photos and post by Madi.
Today was my much-anticipated trip to the Miyagi Zao Fox Village. Over the last year, I have cultivated an intense love for foxes and today was my chance to walk among hundreds of foxes. The village was located 600 km away from our little apartment in Tokyo, so it would be a long journey.
We had researched various travel times and methods, so we set off very early to figure out all of the transportation from someone at the train station. When we got to the Ueno station, we went to the Shinkansen bullet train booth to buy our tickets. We knew from the website that Shiroishi was the train station for Fox Village, so we told the man at the ticket booth that was where we wanted to go. He seemed to understand and gave us tickets for a round trip. When he asked us to pick a time for our return ticket, we chose 5:00 because the Village closes at 4:00.
On the bullet train from Ueno to Fukushima, they had interesting food options such as apple ice cream, beef tongue jerky, and dried smoked sea pineapple. In was interested to visit Fukushima because I knew that was where the reactor melted down a few years ago and I wanted to see if it looked very different from other Japanese towns.
My dad was very impressed with the speed and smoothness of the ride and declared that Japanese bullet trains were better than the European bullet trains he has ridden. When we got off to transfer at Fukushima (which looked no different from other Japanese towns, by the way), we decided to stay on the platform to take pictures of the snow- capped mountains that were now in view.
Our bullet train departed from the station and we were left alone on the platform. Suddenly, we heard a loud rumbling getting closer and closer. It was so loud I was sure there had been an earthquake and the building was coming down. With a loud whoosh, a different bullet train sped past us on the tracks at full speed, which sounds like your standing next to two jet engines (Dad was thrilled).
We made our transfer to a little local train that chugged along the tracks at a speed no faster than a bicycle (Dad was not so thrilled). Finally we arrived at Shiroishi, a little train station, in a little town, in a little valley surrounded by very big mountains. We caught a taxi, and the driver knew exactly where we wanted to go. It was clear that tourists only come to the town to go to one place. We made a pit stop at 7-Eleven so dad could get some cash and a snack, and then we drove up into the windy mountains. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the Fox Village, and we new we were there when we saw the huge plastic gorilla the size of an elephant outside of the entrance. Don’t ask why they have one, no one knows.
We bought our tickets and then went back outside to eat on the bench under the gorilla when we were told that we could not bring our 7-11 food inside the Village. After we finished our snack, we entered the sacred Fox Village. The first part was a display of some foxes and other animals that the Village had. Foxes that did not do well around people or other foxes were kept in enclosures here, away from potential conflicts.
Also, here were the smaller enclosures for the foxes that were available for holding. They are held by people during the day and go out in the free area with their fox friends at night. There were also some goats (and four really cute babies), a large enclosure full of rabbits, and some famous large Japanese crows.
Finally we came to the free area, where foxes and guests were allowed to roam free together (my life dream)! Outside, the gate there were welcome and warning signs in an interesting version of English.
When we went in, there were foxes everywhere sleeping, playing, sleeping, eating, and sleeping.
Some would follow people around, hoping they would break the “don’t feed foxes anywhere except the designated feeding area” rule, and give them a treat. I took the fox food that I bought at the front desk and went to the designated fox feeding area. This is an elevated enclosure from which the humans throw food down to the waiting foxes below. They all congregate here, and sit to wait for tasty little meat pieces to fall from the sky. I would aim for their mouths, and some could snap it right out of the air.
After I gave away all my fox treats, I walked around and took pictures. I was able to see where the kits (baby foxes) are raised.
All around there were little fox houses where they would cuddle up in piles to sleep. Safety (from tourists) in numbers, I guess.
I was surprised at how close I could get to them, while they continued to sleep peacefully. There were red foxes, silver foxes, and marble foxes, and each one was beautiful and unique in its own way.
There were little Japanese fox gates as well!
I was able to do the “hold a fox” experience; it was my first, but it will certainly not be my last. After I’d had my fill, we headed into the gift shop to get some foxy mementos. I was a little disturbed that there were a few taxidermy foxes in the gift shop. Many points deducted for the designer for this hit and miss. Other than that, there were many cute little fox trinkets such as fox key chains, fox t-shirts, fox cell phone stands, fox mugs, fox coin purses, fox candy (I don’t know, don’t ask), fox stuffies, and fox stationary. I got a little fox stuffie and a key chain.
Our journey home was a bit more roundabout. When leaving the fox village, we agreed to share a taxi with an American man, and his Argentinian friend to the Shiroishi train station. We made our way down the mountain and to a train station… which was not our train station… oops. It turned out that a new train station had been built recently named Shiroishi-Zao, which we obviously confused with Shiroishi. It was the correct station for the two men, but not for us. We decided to ask how to get to the other train station inside, so we said goodbye to the men and headed inside to the information desk. We were informed that Shiroishi was the stop right before Shiroishi-Zao, so we could have taken the bullet train straight to Shiroishi Zao instead of the little local train to Shiroishi.
The train ticket people offered to change our return ticket so that we could leave from where we were, but we opted out, as there was an unnecessary fee. We passed the men we taxied with on the way out of the information booth, told them what happened, and said goodbye to them again. We went outside to wait for a taxi, and the two men came out to make sure that we caught a taxi. We were waiting and waiting, and finally one came along. We got in and said goodbye to the men for the third time. When my father told the driver where we needed to go, he shook his head that he could not take us for some unknown reason. So we got out of the cab and had a laugh with the two men who watched. We waited for another taxi, and were able to get one that actually agreed to take us. We said goodbye to the men for the fourth time. On the taxi ride back to Shiroishi station, I asked Dad if the local train or the bullet train left at 5, because I didn’t want to be late. We looked at our travel papers and realized that the man who gave us our tickets had messed up our return. He had interpreted that we wanted to be back home by 5 instead of leaving Shiroishi at 5. Yes, we had already missed both of our trains. So we asked the driver to turn around and take us back to Shiroishi Zao, and I already dreaded seeing the two men and saying goodbye to them a fifth
time. Thankfully, we never saw them, and were able to change our ticket to take the next bullet train to Ueno. We had a smooth ride home after that, and overall, it was a Fox-tastic day.
